An interview of Dr. Peter DAdamo by Dr. Mark Fillipi and Professor Valerie Gaglione Schoton on Blogtalk Radio Show on the basics of blood type dieting, epigenetics and the upcoming book The GenoType Diet.

"Recently there was been discussion on a Naturopathic chat group about the validity of blood type diet, with (IfHI Master) Dr. Virginia Oram being one of your most fervent defenders! Our moderator commented that corn could hardly have been "bad" for all those native Americans. The highly esteemed Pam Taylor offered the following perspective:"

Back in the mid-70's a group of us were doing some comparative studies of skulls from Woodland Native American tribes and skulls from Central America with Dr. Jerry Rose (U. of AR, Dept. of Anthropology), whose specialty was medical anthropology. He pointed out the outlines of arterial imprints in certain groups of the Woodland skulls, which were noticeably larger than those from Central America. He theorized that the adaptive development of the larger blood vessels was a response to the presence of anemia, requiring greater blood flow to supply an adequate amount of oxygen and nutrients to the brain.

The discrepancy was due to diet. The Woodland tribes were known to have cultural "boom and bust" cycles where they would spend some time hunting and gathering while the population expanded and became more robust living off game, fish and berries. Skulls from these groups did not display the enlarged blood vessels. When the tribe reached a certain level of vitality with a large enough population to afford a greater division of labor, they would find a place to settle and and farm, with corn as a staple. The significant increase in corn consumption as a dietary staple eventually resulted in anemia, a lower fertility and birth rate, and a level of irritability that led to less cooperation, more fighting (as evidenced by breakage and healing patterns in the bones), increased mortality and injury, a smaller band of individuals, and eventually resulted in their having to abandon a settled life style and resume hunting and gathering.

He theorized that when native populations in Central America prepared their corn by grinding it with limestone tools the grit that mingled with the corn contained a chemical had an inhibitory effect on corn's assumed inhibition of iron uptake.

Recent rat studies indicate that the periodic iron deficiency anemia of the Woodland population during their settled agricultural periods was more likely due to the amino acid imbalance in the corn (see article notation below) rather than a specific factor inhibiting its uptake. However, the physical evidence over time consistently supported the idea that when the Woodland groups were hunting and gathering, with substantially less corn in their diet, they were measurably healthier.

Studies in cultural anthropology spanning nearly a century note specific disease susceptibilities peculiar to different blood groups. But for sure, whether it's from an anthropological perspective or a naturopathic one, the contributing factors to health and disease, whether focused in an individual or extended to a culture, are multiple and multi-layered.

On days when I have a string of obnoxious patients, I definitely miss the bone lab.

I seem to remember reading that changes in dental and skull molding were also seen in so-called 'Mound Builder Cultures' that appeared to correlate with their evolution to an increasingly corn-based diet. That corn may have had this effect takes nothing away from its sacred role in these societies. It was a key subsistence food which allowed populations to grow and avoid starvation, despite the fact that it may have been a suboptimal source of some key nutrients.

Living on an avoid food is probably better that starving because you can't find any beneficial ones nearby.

Fact is, my research has not met with great acceptance in the naturopathic community. It indicates prudence and occasionally some honest skepticism, although I also think a lot of NDs just can't grok it intellectually. So like the chat moderator, they see it in only its most simplistic manifestations, thus requiring only the simplest objections.

Although you might think that capitalizing on the potential for polymorphisms and biochemical individuality would be a 'no-brainer' in a healing art like naturopathic medicine, the reality is otherwise. Maybe in time things will change, but for now my work lies in that wonderful 'excluded middle' that Charles Forte alluded to; misapprehended by the allopaths and naturopaths alike.

Nonetheless, my old friend, Dr. Pam Snider, who is running the Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine project, an attempt to codify naturopathic tools and techniques, recently asked me to author two entries (co-author with Dr. Joseph Pizzorno on the genomics chapter; lead author on the genomic medicine chapter; and contributing author on nutrition chapter.) I don't know where I'll ever find the time to do this, by Martha has said that she would help out, which almost always makes things better.

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Getting ready for a lecture this weekend at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts. They invited me to do two lectures on Saturday, for a total of about three hours running time. I suspect they don't have much awarenes of the GenoType material, so I'll do the first session on blood groups and then perhaps the second on GenoTypes and epigenetics.

Speaking of which, running factor analysis on the GenoTypes yields interesting spacial distinctions. Here is a graph of two principal components of data aligned along the point of maximum variability seen with the so-called 'classic genes'. It helps to imagine the small lines as actually coming out at you, if the graph could be in 3 dimensions.

The Explorer GenoType sticks out under these conditions as a very unique archetype.

We have just received confirmation that one of our featured speakers will be Professor of Medicine Gerhard Uhlenbruck from the University of Cologne. Dr. Uhlenbruck will be joining an international faculty of experts including Dr. William Mitchell (Washington, USA), Dr. Thomas Greenfield (Kent, UK), Dr. Walter Crinnion (Arizona, USA), Dr. Emily Kane (Alaska, USA), Dina Khader (New York, USA), Dr. Erika Klus (Minnesota, US), Dr. David Bove (Oregon, USA) and myself.

Dr. Uhlenbruck is a legendary figure in lectin and blood group research. His seminal work has led to the discovery of new and novel lectins (such as peanut agglutinin) and the characterisation of lectin activities and antigen specificities (the chemical structure of T antigen was established in 1969 by Prof. Uhlenbruck and his colleagues). You can not read any modern textbook on lectinology or immunology without encountering Dr. Uhlenbruck's research legacy.

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Gerhard Uhlenbruck
(photo from 'Lectins", Second Edition, by Sharon and Lis.

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Dr. Uhlenbruck is a witty and charming speaker and a fountain of insightful aphorisms about the human condition. He has had an interest in complementary medicine long before it became fashionable and acceptable by the orthodox medical community, with special attention to such diverse topics as the health effects of green tea and exercise on the immune system.Dr. Uhlenbruck's lecture is entitled:

"From Fast Food to Fast Feet and from General Feeding to Individual Food."

You will not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet such an important figure. Thanks to IfHI fellows Cocky van Hesteren and Isa-Manuela Albrecht for initiating the the European contact and to Martha D'Adamo and Carol Agostino for the follow-up.

We now have the full IfHI 2007 conference website up and functional. However, we are probably close to half-booked to capacity, so if you didn't add your name to the preregistration list and you are planning to attend, you probably should think about registering ASAP.

I've long thought of using the measurement of breath hydrogen levels as a way of gauging digestive and detoxification improvements in those individuals following the BTD. Last week, I bit the bullet and went ahead and purchased a unit.

Carbohydrate in the intestines can be fermented by bacteria in the small intestine, forming hydrogen as one of the by-products. Some of this hydrogen is absorbed into the blood stream and there is a direct relationship between the hydrogen concentration in expired breath and the amount of unabsorbed carbohydrate in the intestine.

The Hindenberg was full of hydrogen gas.

Each test takes about two hours, since you need several readings. The readings are then sent over to a computer program, which inventories the results.

When I get all the kinks worked out, I'll set up some sort of research study (should be easy to double blind and control it: Randomized assignments. A's who get the Standard American Diet (SAD); A's who get the A diet, etc.

â€˜Unabsorbed carbohydrates from the small intestine are rapidly broken down in the large intestine by colonic bacteria. This degradation liberates hydrogen, which passes into the circulation by diffusion and is then exhaled. The main source of endogenous carbohydrate secreted into the colon is mucus, an intestinal glycoprotein that is 80% carbohydrate.' â€“Pizzorno and Murray Textbook of Natural Medicine

Probably looking at doing the study sometime in the late fall. If you are in the Metro NYC Tri-state area and want to participate, there will be an announcement posted on the website.

Brutally cold in the NE USA. Always seems to happen at about this time, when you've just about had enough of indoor heating, early darkness, greys and browns. However, spring is going to have to arrive eventually. I'm hoping to get out on the Sound more this spring and sail. Anything to get away from the computer.

A morning spent trolling through the medical literature. In subsequent blogs, I'll add a few about each type. Some interesting findings, predominantly about type O:

People who are Type O appear less likely to kill themselves, but more likely to want to kill you:

Considering the lack of any results from supplementing post menopausal women with calcium, which in the Women's Health Initiative Studies was shown to be of no benefit, perhaps those researchers should have looked at ABO blood type, since there appear to be almost three-fold differences in the rate of osteoporosis: